Magan

Magan was an ancient region which was referred to in Sumerian cuneiform texts of around 2300 BC as a source of copper and diorite for Mesopotamia.

The location of Magan is not known with certainty, but most of the archeological and geological evidence suggests that Magan was part of what is now Oman. [1] However, some archaeologists place it in the region of Yemen known as Ma'in^[1], in the south of Upper Egypt, in Nubia or the Sudan, and others as part of today's Iran or Pakistan. [2]

With the disappearance of trade from the Indus region, the copper from Magan was later replaced by copper imports from ancient Cyprus.

Trade was common between Magan and Ur before the reigns of the Gutian kings over Ur. After they were deposed, Urnammu of Ur restored the roads and trade resumed between the two nations (c. 2100 BC).^[2]

References

1. ^ F. Hommel, Ethnologie und Geographie des alten Orients, (Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft von W. Otto, III. Abtl. I, Teil, Bd. I, Munich 1926), 550, 578 ff.
2. ^ Hamblin, William J. Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC. New York: Routledge, 2006.

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